Counter Weight/Balast and Phase One closure

I have been flying with different weights to simulate “Bekah”.  ;-)   Also to simulate luggage and different loading configurations.  Things went well and while I didn't hit every single weight I proved the plane flies well and that there is not a major difference in control feel.  With heavy luggage you end up with a bit slower tail rise on take-off and more pitchy movement on landing, but now that I have “felt” the characteristics I am good to close out my phase one.

Flying down to Renton Field I hit the fabulous 40 hour mark.  I didn't get a pick in the air, but now the plane has been test flown the appropriate number of hours, I have signed it off and am now entering Phase 2 which means I can take passengers to experience the airplane with me.  Oh, the reason I was heading down to Renton was to catch some aerobatic training in a Pitts..  Not cheap, but valuable experience for flying and for future aerobatics.

Also including what I think is just a great pic of my plane tied down for the first time at Renton Field.

Lower cowl and gear leg fairings

I have been working on the lower cowl and gear leg fairings over the last couple weeks.   Finally got them to a point where I am happy with how things are working/flying.   At first the gear leg fairings affected my trim a bit and the Slip/Skid ball was about ½ off.   I simplify adjusted the gear leg fairings and after two flights of adjustment by trim was dead on.   Not sure why people are so concerned about these, or why they add tabs to their rudder.  A simple minor adjustment on the gear leg fairings straightens things out perfectly.   Anyway, I will probably do some more minor tweaking and fiberglass work/priming then call these done for the summer.

Breakfast flight and Gear Fairings

Bekah and I took our first airplane trip together (sort of) this weekend.   She actually flew with friends since I am not up to my 40 hours yet, but we flew in loose formation, so were able to see each other from the air.   In fact they snapped a pretty good pic of me from the air that you can see here.  It sure was fun to fly over to Pt. Townsend for breakfast and have Bekah there on a perfect weather day.

I have been flying off my 40 hours as quick as I can.  At this point I am up to 30.3 which means less than 10 hours and Bekah can fly with me.  Weather isn't supposed to be great this week so I decided to get into my gear fairings.  Turns out they are just like everything else and harder than I thought.  After about 5 hours I have them mounted, but still much more to do with them.  Tricky part is you have to jack the plane up so that there is no weight on the gear.  Then somehow make them straight with the center line of the plan.  There is no real spot to measure from on the fairing, so it’s just kind of do the best you can with plumb lines down the fuse.   I drilled a few extra holes in the fairings as I zeroed in on the best spot to fix them to their supports, so I will need to patch those as I continue to fit and drill them.

Tulip Patrol

I am now 8 flights into phase one and up to about 12.5 hours on the airframe.  Things are going well and I am just starting to get my head around some of the things I want to work on.   I don’t have a heavy wing so that is good, most RV’s come off the line with the need to address what is perceived as a heavy wing.   The airplane also seems to be fairly well coordinated, although I do find myself resting my right foot on the pedal to keep the slip ball exactly centered..  I still need to get the gear and leg fairings on before I do any adjustment to coordination though.

I changed the oil at about 5.5 Tach hours, looked at the oil screen, found nothing, cut open the filter, found nothing..  Very happy with that.

My Oil temp does seem to be a little low at 160, probably due to the northwest temps, but I might put some reflective heat tape on the cooler to see if I can raise it up to the 170-80 mark or so.

Fixed the canopy air exiting noise by using some stick on felt over the roll bar, makes it a bit harder to lock the canopy down, but the reward is a clean seal that is soft on the plexi to boot.

My morning flight today before work rewarded me with nice views of the Tulips over Skagit Valley.  I also did a stop and go at Arlington which is the first time my RV has touched any surface besides Paine Field.  Its only about 12 miles or so, but  was so exciting to actually touch down somewhere new for my RV ! 

Back to Building while in Phase 1

So Phase 1 is going pretty well.  I have had a few issues, but at this point most of them have been resolved.  The funny part is that most of my issues were with vendors work not mine.  Re-assuring, but at the same time I have given money to the vendors and when things don’t work it really is frustrating.  For example my fuel pump.   I really would not recommend the EFII pump to anyone, I’ll do a write up on that later, but that thing has leaked out of every single possible place that it could have.   Working with the vendor and doing some stuff on my own, it is functioning properly now with no leaks.  All other items except some really minor stuff have been resolved, so the plane is online fully and I have 5 flights with about 6 hours on the plane. 

So in my off time I am getting back to building.   Here is the first step on the wheel pants, basically getting each of them to fit together as good as possible.  Lots of sanding fiberglass, but I got them to the point where I am happy.  These will come together slowly over the  next few weeks, but at least I got a start on them.

Continued Phase 1 Flight testing and Squawks (Items needing attention)

So now that my first flight is complete, I have flown the airplane a total of 3 times.  Logging a total of about 4 hours.  Each time getting more familiar with everything and trying to identify and address issues between flights.  The weather around here has been a factor, so it slows me down just enough to try to work through each item between flights.   Issues that have come up and I am tackling are outlined below.

 

• Cabin heat door pulls shut due to pressures in the lower cowl.
• Slight sound of air exiting the cabin where the canopy connects with the roll bar, need to address that.
• My oil filler tube started to loosen as the paper gasket became lubricated with Oil.  It was safety tied, but I could tighten it about 1/8 inch so I tightened and re-safety wired it.
• Ensuring my engine alarms are set correctly for right pressures.  I had a high fuel pressure alarm due to incorrect setting, and an alarm on takeoff roll due to alternator not being turned on..  These issues are mostly ironed out.
• One of my Capacitive fuel senders is not reporting and I need to dive into that.

Tonight I will be going through everything again and getting ready for the 4^th flight.  Then probably an oil change after 5-6 hours of engine run.  Once things stabilize I will be starting work on the gear leg and wheel fairings.

Slowly working my way to 40 hours so that Bekah can fly with me !

704CH First Flight !

See the video Here:   704CH First Flight

I think I might have set a record from airworthiness inspection to first flight.   Funny enough as soon as Steve left I started putting the plane back together.  All the covers went on and the plane became ready to fly the same night.  Then I checked weather and found that over this weekend Seattle was scheduled to have unbelievable weather..  So I told Bekah I wanted to get out and fly Friday morning before the airport became a zoo over the weekend.

All things looked good the next morning both with the weather and with the machine itself, so literally less than 18 hours after I got my airworthiness 704CH was airborne over Paine field.   First flight went well and everything as planned.  Basically first flights are mainly to just pretty much make sure the plane flies as designed, and nothing more.  I was incredibly nervous to the point where even my radio calls were not as smooth as I had liked.  Lucky for me I called the tower ahead of time and told them my plan.  Take off, climb in the pattern out of their airspace, and orbit directly above for about 30 minutes, then descend into the airspace in the pattern and land.

Bekah had a handheld and monitored from the ground, also she caught a few pics, and a I got a full length video from inside the  plane.   I cut the video down to less than 5 minutes so that all the good parts can be viewed for those who don't have a lot of time.   ;-)   I mainly got the takeoff and landing on the video..  Please, no peanut gallery comments about the slight left turn on takeoff, which catches a lot of first time pilots in RVs.  I did nail the landing pretty good for a first landing though.   All else went well, but boy was I nervous and excited when finished to have flown the plane !

Airworthy !

I had some challenges finding a local DAR, but ended up getting Steve Knopp from Camano Island.  He signed up late notice, pushed my paperwork through the FAA and showed up on time less than a week after I contacted him.  He was great I would really recommend him for any aviation type maintenance or DAR work that you  might need.

He and his wife who helps run his business showed up on a great sunny evening in Seattle.  We started at 3:00 finished by 5:00 and I got my airworthiness pink slip and Phase 1 documentation.   He gave me a 100nm radius for my Phase 1 flying.  This means in my first 40 hours where I can't have any passengers  I am at least good to hit most any airport in western Washington.  Also, I know it looks like he  is handing me a blank white paper, trust me, its not !  :-)

The plane became something more than a hunk of expensive metal in about 2 hours, with the airworthiness certificate, this is now an actual airplane !

Taxi Test

So, as I wait for my FAA Inspection I wanted to run the engine for another 5 minutes or so and check the brakes along with a taxi test.   All went well, did a quick run-up at the end and things are looking good.  The airplane really wants to Fly..

This is how it will look on the first flight.   I will get the bottom cowl primed white soon, but probably not until later in the spring, I don’t want to delay anything right now..  The FAA is delaying things enough for me to have to deal with.

Here is a Low Quality Video of my first Taxi ! 

Transition Training and final touches

I went down to Oregon to train with Mike Seager who is a factory endorsed Transition instructor.  Things went well and I got 11 hours with him after a few weather delays.  Flying the RV is definitely different than the other tail draggers I have flown, so I am glad to have taken the training.  We ended up doing an extra hour so that I could get to my 25 hour insurance minimum, but it was fun because we were able to go deeper into wheel landings, short field landings, slips and engine out scenarios etc..  It really was a great well rounded training.

When I got back I decided it’s time to get serious, so I got my data plate on the plane and put the wing root fairings on for the last time before first flight.   Everything in the plane is ready to fly now, but my inspection won’t be for a few days.  After some challenges with scheduling of my first DAR, I have a new one who is much more responsive and looks to be able to turn things around pretty quickly.   So I am looking forward to having him look at the plane and sign me off by end of next week  !

I still have some minor things to do on the plane, so the next week or so will consist of another quick engine run with the cowling on; wrapping my fuel flow transducer with fire sleeve, double checking everything for leaks, and making sure the Skyview is set up correctly, checking the tires and getting ready to Fly !

Wings in Hangar, Tail Wheel Endorsement achieved, continued odds and ends

I haven’t posted for a while because things lately have been crazy in my life..  Won’t go into that boring stuff, just talking about planes here...  I have made lots of progress on external non-building items related to my flying though.  I have been training for the last few weeks in a Aeronca Champ to get my tail wheel endorsement.   Last night I got signed off on both my endorsement and my bi-annual flight review.  I am now current and good to go but will continue flying every couple weeks until early spring when I go down to Oregon and take a crash course (pun not intended) on RV.   It’s good to be back in the air again.  Here is a pic of the plane I have been training in.  Needless to say I am ready to graduate to my RV..

Also, My wings have been in a friends hangar for the last 6 months.  Over the weekend we rolled them across a few hangar rows at Paine field from his hangar into mine.  It was kind of like their first “taxi”, and it was fun to roll them past some 787 Dreamliners along the way.    Then I started getting my hangar (er.. man cave) set up nicely.   It’s going to take a while, but so far I have a few racks, the tail section my American Flag and a few other items to make it a nice manly place to hang out.   I’ll try to grab a photo this weekend of my hangar set up and post with this blog entry.

 Also, I have made some additional progress on my project.  I torqued and safety wired the prop, connected the light speed electronic ignition and fabricated a support for the plug wires above the engine.  Getting close to being complete with the firewall forward.

Our Number is up.. Hangar at Paine Field !

After 2.5 years on the wait list and stalling as long as I could by asking for specific requirements about the desired hangar and location, our hangar number has finally come up.  Starting Oct of 2012, we will have a new home for our RV as long as we can pay the rent (the plane won’t be moved till later this year)..   It’s in the West Hangars of Paine field where we actually know several other pilots who have planes there.  In fact, it’s just down a couple rows from where our old Mooney still resides.  Details on how to get there are below…

The hangar is accessed from the southeast side of the airport and the access gate has the following address: 10700 36th Pl W, Everett, WA 98204. When you get close, follow the signs for "West Ramp Access" and "Gate S-9".  Make your last turn onto 36^th place when you see the fire department, at the end you will come to the gate, just pull aside and call Chad’s cellphone and wait for us to let you in.  You will be able to see our hangar from the gate and we can see you, so will be able to get you in quickly.

For those flying in or with ramp access, the hangar is located in the "West Hangars"

Building 33 Hangar 12